Microsoft has introduced Windows 10 Preview Build 16179 for PC and Build 15205 for Windows 10 Mobile. The PC release is the latest Redstone preview and is available to Windows Insiders on the Fast Ring. For PC users, there are two very important new features bundled into build 16179.
The first is Power Throttling, which we already reported on earlier in the week. We will touch on that feature again shortly, but another new ability arrived for Insiders with Windows 10 build 16179.
It is called Revert VM and it allows developers using Hyper-V on Windows 10 to have automatic checkpoints. Microsoft says this introduction allows customer to be able to undo mistakes in virtual machines. This can be achieved by simply reverting to the last checkpoint made in the VM.
With Power Throttling, Microsoft is launching a feature that can help preserve battery on a PC. Power Throttling can reduce CPU consumption by up to 11%. We imagine the company will tweak and improve this figure through development.
The ability reduces CPU access for apps that are running in the background. Once these processes are pushed further back, the CPU can put more power to apps in the foreground.
Microsoft has promised APIs to help developers build off the concept and have more control over it. Windows 10 with Redstone 3 will come with a Power Slider for users to control how much and which apps are prioritized in Battery Settings.
Moving away from PC, Microsoft has also launched Windows 10 Mobile Preview Build 15205. According to a report on ZDNet, this build is not for Creators Update or Redstone 3. Instead it is a separate branch known as Feature2.
Windows 10 Preview Build 16179 Changelog
As always, Microsoft has provided a changelog for this Insider release. Here are the changes:
Changes, improvements, and fixes for PC
- We fixed the issue causing apps that use the Desktop Bridge (“Centennial”) from the Store such as Slack and Evernote will cause your PC to bugcheck (GSOD) when launched with a “kmode exception not handled” in ntfs.sys error.
- We fixed an issue where adding Hindi to your language list and downloading the on-demand language resources would result in Microsoft Edge crashing on launch and file search returning no results via Cortana or Windows Explorer.
- We fixed an issue where desktop icons would sometimes move around unexpectedly when “Auto arrange icons” was set to On and “Align icons to grid” was set to Off.
- The existing Group Policy to disable the lock screen is now available for those on the Pro edition of Windows 10. Appreciate all who shared feedback on the subject. Note, the Group Policy text has not yet been updated to incorporate this change, that will happen with a later flight.
- We fixed a rendering issue from previous flights where specific multi-monitor and projection configurations could fail depending on the hardware used. This could have impacted all Surface (Surface Book, Surface Pro, etc.) devices as well as other devices using similar chipsets. Another symptom may have been to see screen flickering and potentially being logged out when any screen mode change occurred.
- We fixed an issue resulting in the location icon being continually on in the taskbar after the first time the Action Center was opened if the night light quick action was visible.
Known issues for PC
- Some Insiders have reported seeing this error “Some updates were cancelled. We’ll keep trying in case new updates become available”? in Windows Update. See this forum post for more details.
- Double-clicking on the Windows Defender icon in the notification area does not open Windows Defender. Right-clicking on the icon and choosing open will open Windows Defender.
- Surface 3 devices fail to update to new builds if a SD memory card is inserted. The updated drivers for the Surface 3 that fix this issue have not yet been published to Windows Update.
- Pressing F12 to open the Developer Tools in Microsoft Edge while F12 is open and focused may not return focus to the tab F12 is opened against, and vice-versa.
- exe will crash and restart if you tap any of the apps listed in the Windows Ink Workspace’s Recent Apps section.
- Insiders who use Simplified Chinese IMEs or the Traditional Chinese Changjie or Quick IME to input text will find that the candidate window doesn’t appear when typing into certain apps. If you press space, the first candidate will be finalized. Using the number keys will not finalize any other candidate. If the candidate you need is not the first one, for now you will have to enter your text into an app where the candidate window appears, such as Notepad, and copy it into the desired text field.
- Navigating to Settings > Update & security > Windows Update may crash Settings app. You can simply re-open the Settings app again and it should work again.
- The “Save”? dialog appears to be broken in several desktop (Win32) apps. The team is investigating.
